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Hurricane Ida Expected To Make Landfall In Louisiana As Cat 4 Hurricane; Biden On Strike Against ISIS-K: Not The Last One; Nationwide Marches For Voting Rights On The Anniversary Of 1963 March On Washington; Interview With Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC); Interview With John Bel Edwards (D-LA); All 13 U.S. Servicemembers Killed In Kabul Identified. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 28, 2021 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: First, get this, 72 hours. They are saying you are on your own for 72 hours potentially if you hunker down and ride out this storm.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is on the ground for us in Louisiana, but let's begin with Tom Sater in the CNN Weather Center.

Tom, this is shaping up to be just a devastating storm. You know, people forget that Hurricane Katrina was a 4, weakened to a 3 just before it made landfall. It was still a devastating hurricane. And then this hurricane looks like it could be potentially even more severe.

All right. Tom's mic is not hot right now. Let's go to Derek Van Dam who's in Houma, Louisiana.

Derek, talk to us about what's happening on your end.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, OK, people are leaving this area and rightly so because they know what is looming. They know what's 250 miles off the coast of Terrebonne Parish where I'm located. And just hearing these very ominous words from the Louisiana governor really just perked my ears and my crew's ears up but it certainly perked up anybody who decided to stay and ride out this storm's ears as well. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s. We can also tell you that your window of time is closing. It is rapidly closing. And just like we said yesterday, by the time you go to bed tonight, you need to be where you intend to ride this storm out.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

VAN DAM: So it's still questionable whether or not the individuals behind me who are currently sandbagging are expected to leave. We had a mandatory evacuation order set in place at 6:00 a.m. this morning. Mandatory curfew at 6:00 p.m. in the Terrebonne Parish. But obviously people of heeding the warnings because they know what's coming. They are going to protect their life, their property at all costs, their businesses as well.

That's why they're sandbagging behind me, taking advantage of the Terrebonne Parish dumping off fresh sand every couple of hours here and hopefully getting out and listening to the evacuation orders. This is very interesting. We in Louisiana have had a particularly difficult time with the COVID pandemic as well. Very low vaccination rates here, 41 percent roughly across the state, and very high hospitalizations as well.

We talked to a nurse who did not want to be interviewed on camera, but she told us she's a nurse here within the Houma, Louisiana, location. And she told us that she has never seen a mandatory evacuation aside from Katrina. And during that particular storm, they were able to take patients from the hospitals and move them to nearby hospitals out of the way of the path of the storm. The difference with this storm is all of the hospitals in this area are completely full. So there's nowhere to bring and evacuate the patients -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Derek Van Dam. Let's try to go back to Tom Sater and see if we've got that mic situation solved.

Tom, give us the latest on Ida. This is shaping up to be a massive storm. We heard Governor Edwards warning about this, just how far wide across it is. This is a scary storm that's about to come ashore.

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, no doubt, Jim, this is going to be a multimillion-dollar devastating effect and ongoing for days. Many are going to be without power and uninhabitable for weeks.

Now you brought up Katrina. There aren't many differences. Now as this makes landfall, it's expected as a category 4. The wind core will be providing stronger winds than we had with the landfall of Katrina, but Katrina is a much different beast. In fact it had a longer life cycle. At one time it got up to a category 5 so there was much more water upwelling underneath Katrina. It was carrying with it much more water and on a different approach to really create those storm surges that are going to be much greater than we're going to see with Ida.

I mean, those were 17, even 20. Some post-analysis you want to say 24 flood storm surges. We're not going to see that. But it doesn't have to be. We're going to be looking at an impact that's going to be quite something and really it's unfortunate that's the state of Louisiana. As this makes landfall of a hurricane, this means it will be the fourth out of five hurricanes to hit the U.S., will hit the state of Louisiana.

The last two major hurricanes, that's category 3, 4 and 5, the last two hit Louisiana. Laura cat 4, and then you had Zeta as a cat 3. Laura is the one that caused $17.5 billion of damage. Now there are still thousands of residents in the Lake Charles area that have blue tarps, again, so still very vulnerable. You've got many that are in FEMA trailers that are still sheltering a year ago from this system. If you even want to look at the last nine major hurricanes to strike

the U.S., they were all in the Gulf of Mexico, it wasn't on the Atlantic side. So again, everything is really dependent on a couple of variables.

[16:05:03]

The environment right now is conducive for further development. Last year, in a big sign of even climate change, where it's only happened to a few hurricanes now and then, but we saw it almost with every one last year, rapid intensification just before landfall. So we're expecting maybe Ida to be a 3 tonight and then a 4 tomorrow.

You can see where we're going to have the inundation. If there's going to be a place that you're going to have landfall, no one wants it, but let's find a spot that is less populated. But this area and all these parishes and all these inlets, you have got to leave because the dark red is complete inundation.

If you stay behind with this kind of inundation, be prepared to be on your own because response cruise and first responders are not going to be able to get there because the roads are going to be not only covered with high water but debris and power outages, so get out of this region.

One area of a conducive environment, Jim, is these areas of the warm waters. They get warmer and warmer and warmer as you head toward the coastline. Some of the warmest water we have is areas of Texas over across Louisiana to Mississippi. So as this makes landfall, and the governor mentioned this in his press conference in the last hour, his concern and mine as well is the power at landfall that continues well inland.

We could have well over 50-mile-per-hour winds up in Jackson, Mississippi. The center of this could right all the way up towards Tennessee, that had all that flash flooding in Waverly and in Centerville. So tonight we're going to get more information at 5:00 p.m., the next latest advisory, but high winds will be stronger with Katrina if this continues to be a category 4 at landfall.

That's massive power outages that will last for weeks. But as the governor said, 10,000 linemen are ready and they have another 10 on contract getting ready to be standing by and moving in right away.

ACOSTA: And Tom, and forgive me if the Katrina comparisons are not perfect here, obviously we're talking about two different storms. One of the things that was so concerning, I covered Katrina, I remember it just parked over top of us for hours and hours.

SATER: Yes.

ACOSTA: And that was what was so devastating about it. What about Ida? Might it just rip through the area more quickly and that might potentially be less devastating? How is that looking?

SATER: You're exactly right with Katrina. Harvey did the same thing. You could outwalk Harvey when it flooded parts of Houston. It made landfall as a category 4 and that devastated Rockport. But this is -- we're expecting to slow down and that's not a good sign either.

We've noticed not only with the rapid intensive patient, Jim, but we're watching these systems slow as they move into landfall, so that means ongoing hours and hours of wind and rainfall that just makes it worse for anyone who is trapped and is going to need some help.

It's going to continue to keep pretty strong winds as I mentioned all the way up to the border and areas of Tennessee. So, again, it's going to keep its power. When Michael made its way into Mexico beach, it was still a category 2 north of Atlanta. This could do the same thing several hundred miles inland. So we're going to have to watch. We've got another advisory at 5:00 p.m.

ACOSTA: All right, Tom, thanks so much. And Derek Van Dam, thanks for that report as well.

I want to bring in Vice Admiral Steven D. Poulin. He currently serves as the commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic area and Coast Guard Defense Force East.

Vice Admiral, thanks so much for being with us during this very critical time. I see you're in Mobile, Alabama, which will be feeling some of the effects of Hurricane Ida. The Coast Guard often responds to these natural disasters providing search and rescue. What is your message to people who are in the path of this storm and are choosing to ride this out?

VICE ADMIRAL STEVEN D. POULIN, ATLANTIC AREA COMMANDER, U.S. COAST GUARD: My message is very clear. Comply with state and local emergency management officials and evacuate when there's a mandatory or even a voluntary evacuation.

ACOSTA: It's as simple as that. And how are Coast Guard crews preparing to move into these areas for search and rescue mode? Because that is obviously what's next for you and the men and women you work with.

POULIN: Yes. Well, first off, thanks for having me. Our lines of effort are very clear. The first is to save lives. That's what the Coast Guard always does and that's what we're going to do in this situation as well. The second is to respond to any marine pollution events that arise because of Ida's impact. And the third is to try and get the waterways and the ports reopened as soon as possible after the storm passes.

We have flowed forces into the northern Gulf Coast. We've got 34 rotary wing aircraft at the ready. We've got 14 fixed-wings at the ready. Many of those are here in either Mobile or Houston ready to respond. And that's in addition to some of the shallow watercraft and the other boats that we have prepositioned.

ACOSTA: And we talked to an emergency official with the city of New Orleans earlier on in this program and he was cautioning people in that area that they may have to take care of themselves for, you know, 72 hours after this storm hits, that they need to be prepared to do that. And I suppose after that point, I guess, passes, folks like yourself will be able to conduct rescue operations or can you conduct rescue operations sooner than that? What does that look like for you?

[16:10:01]

POULIN: Well, our thoughts are with everybody here on the northern Gulf Coast area, especially in Louisiana. I was down here last year when we responded to Laura, Zeta, Delta, all of the historic hurricanes that impacted the Gulf Coast last year. We are going to respond as soon as it's safe to do so. We're not going to put our crews in harm's way. Our crews are heroes. They assume a lot of risk but we're not going to take any unnecessary risk.

But we will get our aircraft and our planes flying as soon as the weather allows after the storm passes.

ACOSTA: And the New Orleans infrastructure administrator says the city's levee system is better equipped for flooding than it was during Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure you remember all of those images, what unfolded during Hurricane Katrina when those levees failed. Are you concerned about what could happen if the city sees massive amounts of rain in a short period of time, even with that improved levee system?

POULIN: I'm really proud of what the Coast Guard did in Hurricane Katrina. We saved over 33,000 people. We are going to continue to respond to save lives in this case, irrespective of where the impact is, whether it's flash flooding, whether it's tidal surge, whether it's people who are stranded. We are going to save lives and assist people. That is why we prepositioned our aircraft here on the northern Gulf Coast.

That's why I've actually moved aircraft down from the Great Lakes area, I've moved aircraft down from Cape Cod, and I've also moved aircraft over from Florida. So we're trying to flow resources in here so that we can be agile and ready to respond. We also have brought down some flood punts from the Great Lakes and we've got combat craft that are shallow water capable as well that we're prepositioning in the likely impact area.

ACOSTA: Well, Admiral, thanks to you and the men and women you work with, as you said, they do heroic work on behalf of the American people. Thank you for moving all those assets into place. And I'm sure it's going to be a long stretch here in the days ahead, but thank you so much for the work that you do.

POULIN: Well, thanks for allowing me to highlight what the Coast Guard is doing. Thank you.

ACOSTA: Thanks so much. Good luck in the next few days. We appreciate it.

Coming up next, an alarming warning from President Biden. He says another attack at the Kabul airport is highly likely within the next 36 hours. This as U.S. troops remain on the ground trying to get people out. We'll have more right after this. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:33]

ACOSTA: A troubling new warning from President Biden today. He says his commanders assessed that another Kabul airport attack is, quote, "highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours." This as the Pentagon reveals that two high profile ISIS-K militants were killed and one wounded in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan overnight.

The aftermath seen in this exclusive video obtained by CNN shows the damage around a building and inside it. President Biden says that strike will not be the last one.

I'm joined now by CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser and CNN senior political analyst and former adviser to four presidents, David Gergen.

David and Susan, great to have both of you and your insights on this afternoon. We appreciate it so much.

Susan, if the intel is pointing to an imminent follow-up attack at the airport, then what did -- I mean, I suppose the question could be asked what did this drone strike overnight accomplish at this point?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, obviously this is a grim and even chilling warning from the president. And, you know, I would point out that actually the White House made similar stark warnings in the days leading up to the first attack by ISIS-K on the airport. And you know, it's just such a chaotic scene there. And they haven't yet unspooled exactly what happened but they were unable to prevent that.

And I think, you know, the reality is you can't bomb a terrorist group into submission. We know that. If there's anything we've learned from 20 years of an endless war on terror, I think it's that. It's that you cannot destroy an ideology with a series of bombing strikes no matter how many people you killed.

Remember that in the last few hours and days of this operation in the Kabul airport before Monday's deadline that President Biden has set for U.S. troops to withdraw, essentially anybody who wants to take a pot shot at American troops, this is their last foreseeable chance to do so on the physical territory of Afghanistan, and I think that's part of the reason why you're hearing these very stark warnings from the White House. But it's going to be a nerve-racking couple of days, I think.

ACOSTA: And David, ISIS-K, they obviously have to understand that if they carry out more attacks, there will be more counterattacks by the United States. President Biden has made that very clear. What is your sense of how the president is handling this right now, given what we're seeing in the last 24 hours, and the stark warning from the president that we may see another terrorist attack in the next day or two?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Jim, I just had the opportunity to speak to someone high up in the administration. That is rare I've heard anybody in government be so preoccupied in a grave sense taking this warning from the president very literally and, you know, so they're preoccupied with two things.

One is the threat and also these last days when there's likely to be more chaos and people realized, the Afghanis realized, the gates to hell are closing on them very, very quickly, and there's going to be a huge amount of pressure coming from all directions over the next couple of days. Susan is absolutely right about that.

ACOSTA: And Susan, this note that we received in the last hour or so, I guess the Taliban is saying they don't approve of what the United States -- I mean, can they -- are they kidding? I mean, do they have any say in this? Obviously this is standard operating procedure for the United States to carry out these kinds of counterattacks when something like this happens.

GLASSER: Well, first of all, let's remember that the Taliban swept to power in part because the Afghan national government essentially collapsed.

[16:20:02]

Many soldiers and government officials essentially left their posts. And there is no at the moment legally constituted government of Afghanistan, so the Taliban is still trying to consolidate their power. Obviously having the U.S. operate as sort of a free fire zone inside of this territory, attacking ISIS-K at will, which we have the physical possibility to do so, you know, this idea that the Taliban and the United States are temporarily converging in their interests in going against ISIS-K, I think that's an overly simple view of the problem.

The bottom line is that the Taliban has been committing atrocities as we know for many years against the civilian population in Afghanistan. Difference of opinion with ISIS-K. Sometimes they've been on the same side, both attacking the United States. Sometimes not. But I would not be so naive as to think that, well, the Taliban and the United States are going to be working hand in glove even over this next couple of days. That would be a wrong assumption.

ACOSTA: David and Susan, I wanted to get your thoughts on the names of the fallen service members being released today by the Pentagon. The president will be making those heartbreaking calls to the families.

David, you've advised four presidents. I don't think President Biden needs to know -- needs us to tell him what to say, but what are your thoughts upon learning the names of these heroes?

GERGEN: Well, one of the things that struck me looking at the names, how young they were. 20, 21, 22. These are really just young adults who are coming to promise and coming into themselves, so this is really tough, I think, to see that. I noticed there was only one woman in the group and I was pleased about that. It might have been a much higher number.

Let me go back to what you originally asked, Jim, and that is, how overall has Biden been handling this. I think that history is going to be very mixed. You know, he got half his mission done. He's pulling us out of Afghanistan, out of these forever wars. That's what the country wanted and he's getting it done. It's also true, and I think we should remember this as we criticize the administration for its management, that they did in the space of 11 days get about 120,000 people out. That's remarkable.

Now that's the good part. But the bad part is all of this came at huge costs. Huge costs in the sense that the veterans community is frustrated, angry, that we're violating the pledge we made right at the beginning that no one will be left behind. We have tens of thousands of Afghani citizens who we are leaving behind in great jeopardy for their lives and we seem to be just sort of walking away from it and say, well, that's life.

I think the veterans community has the right answer, we ought to be taking this much more seriously than we are. Beyond that, I think the president himself has been damaged by this. He's going to be under pressure now both on his credibility and his competence. And that's going to be by international folks as well as here.

ACOSTA: Susan, final thought from you?

GLASSER: Yes, I think David has it exactly right. This is the, you know, trial my fire. All presidencies encounter crises, international crises often in their first year in office. They're not fully staffed out.

One of the things that Biden sold the American people on is the contrast with Donald Trump and the idea that his long experience in international affairs, his, you know, personal competence and the competence of his administration, that there would be a different tone.

We've seen an extremely partisan country that's really unable, I think, to come behind any unified vision. And you know, it's a tragic thing to watch unfolding. But I'm really struck by the urgency of that warning. I'm very worried about the next couple of days, I have to say.

ACOSTA: That is certainly true. All right, Susan Glasser, David Gergen, let's hope that warning does not come to pass. Thank you both very much. We appreciate it.

People across the U.S. are marching today demanding Congress pass sweeping voting rights legislation. The protests come 58 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. A live report from Washington is right after this.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:50]

ACOSTA: Exactly 58 years ago the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was telling the world he had a dream at the march on Washington. Today his legacy lives on with more activism. Right now demonstrators around the country are participating in marches for voting rights. They're hoping to pressure lawmakers into passing voting rights legislation.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux reminds us how civil rights leaders did all of this so many years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was quietly brokered between President Johnson, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders. One of those leaders and one of King's closest advisers, former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, recalls the critical turning point. A secret White House meeting between President Johnson and King.

ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: That we went to see him and we were talking about voting rights. And he was tied up with the war in Vietnam.

MALVEAUX: Young says he and King urged Johnson to put forward a strong voting rights bill before Congress.

[16:30:00]

But the president was reticent about the potential political pushback, of just signed a sweeping Civil Rights Act of 1964.

ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR: He agreed with us and said, but I just don't have the power.

And when we left the White House, walking out, I said, look, the president is right. He can't go back to Congress. He really doesn't have the power.

MALVEAUX: King's response stunned him.

YOUNG: He said, we're going to get the president some power. I said, that's the most arrogant thing I've ever heard you say, that you're going to get the president some power. And then I realized he was serious.

MALVEAUX: The power, King surmised, would come from some irrefutable evidence, that black people were, indeed, being denied their constitutional right to vote.

King targeted Selma, Alabama, where less than 2 percent of black residents were registered to vote.

The first attempted march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery drew several hundred to the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

YOUNG: No money, no real plan. But I was thinking politically and practically. He was thinking spiritually.

MALVEAUX: As the marchers crossed the bridge, they were brutally beaten and tear gassed by Alabama state troopers and local police.

Bloody Sunday, broadcast around the world, providing Johnson the political momentum he needed to urgently get the voting rights legislation back in play.

ANDREW JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no negro problem. There's no southern problem. There's no northern problem. There's only an American problem.

MALVEAUX: The Voting Rights Act passed about five months later and was signed into law on August 6, 1965, forbidding racial discrimination in voting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And Martin Luther King's son, Martin Luther King III, was here leading a march to remind people that despite the fact that blacks at that time did have a constitutional right to vote, it was the state laws that appeared neutral but were actually restrictive in trying to get black voters to count the number of Jellybeans or pay a certain fee or a penalty.

That's why he says the chipping away of the Voting Rights Act today must include the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to try to restore some of those provisions.

Jim, an aside here, one person we didn't see, Reverend Jesse Jackson. He is recovering, battling COVID with his wife, Jacqueline Jackson.

I've been in touch with family members and they say both are responding to the treatments here, but it was a moment of silence and prayers from activists who wished them well -- Jim?

ACOSTA: Yes, Suzanne, we wish the best to Reverend Jackson and his family and hope he pulls through.

Suzanne, thanks for that excellent report. We appreciate it so much.

Let me bring in the number-three Democrat in the House, South Caolina Congress, Democrat Jim Clyburn.

Congressman, thanks for being with us.

Today's marches show the sense of urgency is not letting up on the Democratic side. But the GOP side is fighting tooth and nail on this. Texas is on the cusp of seeing these new voting restrictions enacted.

Why isn't that urgency resonating, do you think, with some Democrats in the Senate who are frankly holding up this legislation?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): First of all, thank you very much for having me.

You know, 58 years is a long, long time in an individual's life. But then, life of a country, any country, not so long.

I think that one of the things we have to always keep in mind is that this country's movement, its movement toward a more perfect union, is never on a linear plane.

It has always been like a pendulum on a clock. It goes right for a while. It goes left for a while. And then back to the right. That's the way it has always been.

And the only way that keeps that in check is the participation of the citizenry and we do that by voting.

Any impediment to voting should never be a part of this democracy that we all hold dear.

And if we know from history that the filibuster has been used to deny voting rights. That has been the big thing. Other civil rights as well.

So we cannot go into this election season without protections from people who we see in Texas, in Georgia.

In fact, 49 states have proposed some kind of voting restrictions all unleashed by the Supreme Court in its so-called Shelby v. Holder decision of over nine years ago.

[16:35:07]

The Supreme Court knows full well, especially those six conservatives, that what they're doing is giving a license to people who wish to suppress voters of color.

They're giving a license for states, like Texas and Georgia. And we have had problems here in South Carolina to a lesser extent.

But we cannot allow voting rights to be turned over to a state-by- state approach. And that's what is happening with the Supreme Court.

I would hope that Congress will do what it can. Now, we've done it in the House. The Senate has got the bill. It is time for the Senate to say that if you want to stay in power, appeal to a majority of the voters.

Don't try to rig the system, and that's what's going on in Texas. They're trying to rig the system in order to stay in power.

ACOSTA: Congressman, if you don't see what you want to see happen in the Senate and if you don't get relief in the courts and at the Supreme Court, what is the alternative? What are you left with?

Might this potentially become a huge motivating factor for the civil rights community, for the African-American community in this country to show up and vote in these upcoming elections to show that these various restrictions around the cup country won't stand in the way?

CLYBURN: Jim, let me mention to you, you talk about King's speech, "I have a dream" speech, if you remember, when he finished talking about the dream, he said, at the end of that speech, I am going back to the south where governors' lips are dripping with vilification.

That's what he called for. That's what's going on today.

Look at the Georgia law that they passed. It's nullification. It's giving an individual or a group of individuals the right to overturn election results. That is to nullify an election.

No amount of participation. You could have 100 percent participation of people of color and they could elect anybody they want to elect.

If you give someone the power to nullify that vote, which is what they did in Georgia, what good does it do?

ACOSTA: And, Congressman --

(CROSSTALK)

CLYBURN: So that's what I'm saying to the Senate.

This is not just about turning out in record numbers and overcoming what they're doing, you cannot overcome nullification. It's impossible.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman, let me just ask you, because I know you're close to President Biden.

What are your thoughts on how he has handled the final days of this withdrawal from Afghanistan? Have you been providing any advice to him?

And what do you make of this warning from the president that we might see yet another terrorist attack within the next 24 to 36 hours?

CLYBURN: I think that we might. I think the president is being transparent. He is being honest with the American people. He is telling us exactly what we can expect.

And that's what Americans want. They don't want lies. They want people in office who will be straight with them and not tell them things that they know not to be true.

And so I applaud President Biden for being transparent and open.

Yes, it is uncomfortable. But it is an honest approach to governance and that's what we need in this country.

ACOSTA: All right, Congressman James Clyburn, thanks as always for joining us on this program. We appreciate it. Look forward to talking again soon. Thanks so much.

CLYBURN: Thank you very much for having me.

ACOSTA: Thank you, sir. Louisiana is expected to take a direct hit from Hurricane Ida

tomorrow, the very day Hurricane Katrina hit 16 years ago. Ida, however, is expected to be even stronger when it makes landfall. The governor of Louisiana joins us next.

[16:39:19]

You've live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Right now, Hurricane Ida is barreling toward the gulf coast, set to slam Louisiana tomorrow as a category 4 storm. Winds up to 150 miles an hour along with devastating storm surge. Up to 15 feet are expected.

The National Weather Service warning now some areas might be, quote, "uninhabitable." That's the word they're using at the National Weather Service, "uninhabitable" for weeks or months after the storm.

The governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, is joining us now.

Governor, thanks for jumping into place for us. We appreciate all your work this afternoon.

What is your message now to the people in your state? And what do people need to know right now ahead of this storm?

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): Obviously, Jim, first of all, thank you for having me on.

And what we're telling people is you just have a few more hours really to prepare because early tomorrow morning we're going to have the weather degrade rather rapidly. Tropical-storm-force winds well inland by about 8:00 a.m.

So we are asking people to evacuate, if you need to evacuate.

[16:45:03]

But really where you go to bed tonight, you need to be prepared to ride out the storm. The storm is going to be very severe. It will be a category 4 when it makes landfall.

It should make landfall about 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night. About 140- mile-an-hour winds. That will likely happen between Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes in southeast Louisiana.

So we just have a lot of work to do between now and then.

Storm surge will be up to 15 feet which will test all of our protection systems down along the coast, which is why we're evacuating people from those coastal areas, the ones that you were just referring to, is the ones that will be uninhabitable for some period of time to come.

ACOSTA: Governor, I just want to follow up on something you were just saying a few moments ago.

It sounds as though you're saying that people who live in this area, in the storm zone where Hurricane Ida is going to hit, that they really just have hours if they're going to evacuate, to make that decision, pack up and go.

EDWARDS: But the good news is those parish leaders made decisions yesterday around evacuation orders. We have been watching the traffic flow on the interstate system and U.S. highway system out of that area all day.

People are heeding that guidance and leaving and they're moving to points north, east and west out of the central area.

This is going to be a very large storm so there will be winds that we believe will reach 110 miles per hour sustained, which is category 2 itself. But around Baton Rouge and as far west as Lafayette and as far east as New Orleans.

And when you talk about rain totals, that could be up to 15, 16 inches. And in isolated areas, above 20 inches. With that kind of rain, that kinds of storm surge, that kind of wind, this is just a very serious storm. It will be one of the very strongest storms to hit Louisiana since the 1850s.

Ironically, it's scheduled to make landfall on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

ACOSTA: Right. And that adds another layer of emotional difficulty on top of what people would normally be going through otherwise with this storm right now.

How is your state prepared for this? You were mentioning that some people will make the decision to hunker down and ride out this storm.

Have the preparations been made to get law enforcement, first responders, those types of folks, rescuers, to those parishes, to those areas where people did ride out the storm and are now struggling to get out?

EDWARDS: Well -- did I lose you there, Jim?

ACOSTA: No, you're good. That's OK. We still have you, sir. Happens to me all the time.

EDWARDS: Look, we actually have the entire National Guard mobilized. More than 4,000 soldiers and airmen right now, more than 5,000 before landfall tomorrow.

We have 650 first responders comprised of a team from Louisiana. But 15 teams from another -- other states actually, for urban search and rescue that will commence as soon as possible after the storm passes.

One of the real challenging things we have this time that we haven't faced before to this extent, we had four hurricanes last year during COVID but we had a small fraction of the number of people in our hospitals that we currently have.

We have more people in the hospital today, 2,450 with COVID than we had at any point before this current surge.

When Hurricane Laura hit last year, we only had about 300 in the hospitals.

So evacuating hospitals is not going to be possible because there's nowhere to bring those patients to. There's no excess capacity anywhere else in the state or outside the state.

And so we're really worried about prolonged power outages. The good news is we have about 10,000 linemen in the state already. Another 20,000 poised to come in as soon as possible and as necessary.

But restoring power will be critically important in order to keep these hospitals up and functioning.

Now they all have generator power. And they've made other preparations.

But we're going to need to restore power as soon as possible. And that's one of my biggest concerns going into the storm.

ACOSTA: Governor, you touched on something and I want to follow up on that.

When you're talking about these emergency rooms, these ICUs that are full in your hospitals across the state, we didn't have this problem during Hurricane Katrina and some of these other hurricanes we've had in the past in your part of the country.

What does that mean, though? What are you hearing from hospital officials, the folks who are running the hospitals in your state who are going to have to deal with this, potentially losing power with COVID-19, very desperate COVID-19 patients who are maybe clinging to life in some cases?

EDWARDS: Well, first of all, we work with our hospitals every day during COVID. But as we've approached hurricane season, our communications have increased. Certainly, since this forecast came out for a hurricane yesterday morning.

[16:50:07]

But as the forecast actually, you know, was refined and we know the track, we know the intensity, a lot more concern for the hospitals.

But they're all doing tremendous work. They have been stocking up on supplies that they need in order to function. They have been testing their generators and so forth.

And so it's going to be a real challenge. And we're likely to need some help with respect to our hospitals.

And then you have people who may be injured as a result of the hurricane itself. And so we need to make sure we have some capacity for them.

The good news here is we've got 450 less patients in the hospital today with COVID than we had just 11 days ago. So we freed up a little bit of capacity.

But we still have a very, very challenging situation here across the state of Louisiana.

ACOSTA: If you have a lot of injuries, Governor, from the storm, 450 beds might not be enough. I guess that's right.

You could have a situation -- we've seen this prior to this hurricane coming in -- where you've had hospitals having to make these terrible decisions about who they can admit because their ICUs may be filled with a lot of COVID patients.

EDWARDS: Yes. And they just don't have the ability to accept transfers. So our tier-one hospitals that are equipped for more serious health situations are unable in many cases to accept the transfers.

And so patients are left in the hospitals that are smaller, without some of the expertise, some of the technology needed to adequately treat them.

And that's happening all across the country to one extent or another.

But you certainly never want to go into a storm like Hurricane Ida with that situation.

So we've got a lot of work to do. And I will tell you, the partnership with the federal government has been great.

The president signed my request for a pre-landfall declaration yesterday.

FEMA already has additional generators and other things moving in, ambulance teams to help us evacuate nursing homes from those low-lying coastal areas. That's been taking place all day today. So there's a lot of work.

The other thing I want to say about that is, we have a hurricane risk reduction system now around the most populated portions of Orleans and Jefferson Parish, the greater New Orleans area, that we didn't have when Hurricane Katrina hit.

None of the modeling that we have shows that anything inside the hurricane risk reduction system is going to be threatened. That takes a big load off of us and allows us to focus on more evacuations.

So we have more protection systems in place today than we've ever had before and they will be tested like they have not been tested up to now.

ACOSTA: Governor John Bel Edwards, we hope the system passes the test and hope the best for you. Good luck, sir, in these coming days. We appreciate you coming on and speaking to the people of your state

and that region, which has been hard hit by so many hurricanes.

Appreciate your time, sir. Thanks very much, Governor.

EDWARDS: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And we have reporters already in Louisiana and even more headed there now preparing to cover this storm.

Do not go anywhere. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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ACOSTA: We're learning more about some of the U.S. servicemembers who lost their lives in the attack outside Kabul's airport this week.

It's easy to generalize, saying our servicemen and women carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, but they carry so much more on that, literally.

U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz was just 20 years old. Every day, he loved to meet his 9-year-old special-needs sister at the bus stop and he would carry her backpack on his shoulders as they walked home together.

She would make the backpack heavier and heavier just to mess with him. But his dad says Jared turned that into training for the Marines.

Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee was 23 years old. Her friend and fellow Marine is expressing grief and disbelief in a powerful Facebook post.

Just last week, on Instagram, Sergeant Gee wrote, "I love my job." The photo she posted along with it shows her carrying an Afghan baby as she assisted in the evacuation.

And 20-year-old Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum was on his first deployment. And his sister told CNN he was three weeks away from the birth of his first child.

Rylee always wanted to be a Marine ever since he was a kid so he'd carry a toy rifle when walking in his diapers and cowboy boots.

Then 22-year-old Lance Corporal Hunter Lopez. His mother shared a recent exchange she had with her son when he sent her a photo of him and a small Afghan boy. He told her he scooped up the boy and carried him on his shoulders for five miles to safety.

Right now, all 13 fallen U.S. servicemembers are being carried themselves. The Pentagon saying their remains are on one last journey home.

And we thank all of them for their service to this country. We offer our condolences to their families. We appreciate everything that they have done for all of us.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break.

Have a good night.

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